10 Incredibly Cool Swimming Pools

When you're looking for a place to cool off this summer remember: not every pool is created equal. Here are 10 of the most innovative and ingenious swimming pools out there, boasting everything from self-filtration systems to mechanically moving floors.

Pool, NYC

Pool, NYC

A pool that can make even New York City's East River swimmable? That's the idea behind Pool, a proposed public pool that floats along the city's waterways, filtering the bacteria and contaminants as it goes. Architect Dong-Ping Wong and designers Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin came up with the idea in 2010, and it's since garnered plenty of support—especially through Kickstarter, where the team recently funded a 35 foot by 35 foot experimental version called Float Lab. This floating science lab is currently traversing NYC's waterways, testing and perfecting the filtration system before Pool's 2016 slated opening.

Shaped like a plus-sign, the larger, 9,300 square foot pool will feature individual wings for training, sports, kids, and lounging, and can be refigured into one big Olympic-size pool if needed. It's designed to filter up to 500,000 gallons of river water daily, though they're still figuring out where all the junk that's filtered will go.

London Aquatics Centre, UK

London Aquatics Centre, UK

If you feel the need for speed while swimming, this is your place. Built for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the pools at the city's Aquatic Centre were designed with the athletes in mind. The main competition pool has a mechanical moving floor that's kept at a 10-foot depth during competition—just the right distance to dissipate waves created when swimmers kick. Gutters lining the pool's perimeter also help negate water turbulence that slows swimmers down. Even the rotating lane markers work to disperse energy, taking in the impact of each wave (and keeping them from entering neighboring lanes) as they spin. The center opened to the public in March 2014.